Leg rests have been utilized in the prior art for supporting instruments on the leg of a seated musician for many years. For example, Gladieux U.S. Pat. No. 774,750 describes a combined support and tone modulating device for musical instruments which includes a supporting arm shaped to rest upon the thigh or knee of a banjo player for supporting the banjo head. The position of the supporting arm may be adjusted in two directions by a screw which clamps the arm into a final position.
Mortensen U.S. Pat. No. 1,261,841 discloses a banjo knee rest which is mounted to a pair of blocks. When not in use, the rest may be removed from the banjo, and the blocks are small enough so that they do not project in a manner which interferes with the packing of the banjo.
Russell U.S. Pat. No. 1,285,802 discloses a guitar rest which clamps to the neck of the guitar for supporting it on the leg of a musician. The rest is removed when not in use.
Rasmussen U.S. Pat. No. 1,945,162 describes a guitar support which includes an elongated and outwardly curved rest arm pivoted to a flexible strap attached to the periphery of a stringed instrument. Additional supports and leg rests are disclosed in Ivie U.S. Pat. No. 3,955,461, Montenare U.S. Pat. No. 2,884,828, and Luttberg U.S. Pat. No. 2,133,356.
Although the prior art devices are useful in supporting various types of instruments on the leg of a musician, most of these devices require manual adjustments in order to place the support in an operative position, or require dismounting of the device when it is not in use. In addition, many of these devices are visually unappealing, and serve to disturb the overall appearance of a streamlined instrument body.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a simple and effective leg rest device for a stringed musical instrument which may be left in a mounted position on the instrument, when not in use, and which is quickly and easily placed in its open position ready for use.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a leg rest which is easily opened and closed, and which provides no substantial protuberance from the lower surface of the instrument on which it is mounted when the leg rest is in the closed position.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a leg rest which maintains a substantially streamlined appearance of the body of a stringed musical instrument with the leg rest mounted on the instrument in a closed position.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description that follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.